How does tie break work if the Czechs beat Canada and a 3 way tie is set up with Finland, Czechs and Canada? Is it total goal differential? That could make each teams game against Ukraine very important; Best team at running up a score wins a bye. Not a very satisfying result or healthy goal to enter a game with...or does goal differential for the 3 games (Canada/Finland, Finland/Czechs, Canada/Czechs) count first?

1. Head-to-head play. (Whoever won between those two teams wins the tie-break.)
2. Most Wins.
3. Goal differential.

If there is a tie between three teams:

1. Most Wins.
2. Goal differential involving games between the three tied teams. Games against other opponents do not count.

So if Canada, Finland and the Czechs tie for first, they will have the same number of wins. The determining factor will be goal differential, and each team's games against Ukraine and Switzerland will not count.

...But which comes first, scored goals in mutual games or goal differential in all games if, say, the Czechs beat Canada 6-1 and Canada and Finland both end up with -2 in CAN-CZE-FIN games, with all three teams at six points?

...But which comes first, scored goals in mutual games or goal differential in all games if, say, the Czechs beat Canada 6-1 and Canada and Finland both end up with -2 in CAN-CZE-FIN games, with all three teams at six points?

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Total goal differential is not used in a three-way tie.

With your scenario, if CZE beats CAN 6-1, then the Czechs will be +6 and will take first place...

My logic tells me that Canada and Finland then become a two-way tie, in which Canada would take 2nd place because of their win over Finland.

I will send off an email to an IIHF representative to get the official tiebreak formulas.

Scenario: If CZE beats CAN by two goals (example 2-0), this creates this standing:

CZE 2 4-3 +1
CAN 2 3-2 +1
FIN 2 3-5 -2

CZE wins group on higher amount of goals scored.
Any one-goal win by CZE over CAN in this three-team tie (1-0, 2-1, 5-4) places CAN first in the group.
FIN cannot win the group since they cannot improve their record in this three-team tie situation.

Note: CZE of course also wins the group if they beat CAN by any score (example 1-0) providing SUI beats FIN. In this case, there is no three-team tie (only two CZE and CAN on 6 points) and CZE wins the group by virtue of the head-to-head game against CAN.

The other three-team tie could arise if CAN beats CZE and SUI beats FIN. Then, with CAN obviously the winner of the group, CZE, SUI and FIN all finish on 4 points.

Scenario: Any two-goal win by SUI over FIN creates a standing where CZE and SUI finish ahead of FIN, which then ends up on fourth place. Example, SUI-FIN 2-0:

SUI 2 3-2 +1
CZE 2 4-4 0
FIN 2 3-4 -2

Scenario: The most intriguing situation occurs if SUI beats FIN 3-2. This result creates the following standing within the three-team tie:

FIN 2 5-5 0
CZE 2 4-4 0
SUI 2 4-4 0

In this situation FIN takes second place behind CAN by virtue of most goals scored, while CZE and SUI are still tied. The tiebreaker between CZE and FIN, as ruled out in the IIHF Statues & Bylaws, is: If total equality still exists, then the goals from all games played in the group will count, with goal difference as the first tie-breaker and highest amount of goals scored as the second.

If the teams are still equal, despite the whole procedure as above, then the two teams will take part in a separate game winning shot competition ("penalty shoot-out"). This can actually happen if CAN beats CZE 7-5.

In this case, going back to the standings with all games included, CZE and SUI will have the following record:

CZE 4 2 0 2 17-11 4
SUI 4 2 0 2 17-11 4

Note: A "penalty shoot-out" would take place after the SUI-FIN game.

Scenario: A win by SUI over FIN by one goal with scores 4-3, 5-4, 6-5 etc will place CZE third under this three-team tie situation. Example SUI-FIN 4-3: